DC Big Flea Market: September 18-19

I've posted about this show once before, but haven't been back in months. Sometimes it's good to take a little break; especially since it's usually the same dealers hawking the same old tired junk. This weekend's show was limited to the one convention hall, but was packed to the rafters with people.

If you are going with the intent to buy, I have found that it is always good to have a plan. For example, today I knew I was going to be looking for vintage deskware for the new office. This greatly limited impulse spending.

Now, on to the goods...

This dealer had a pretty good selection of vintage movie posters.

This guy's booth always draws a crowd. Now you know why.

Dollhouse? Interesting.

These types of kits were popular throughout the 1960s. This particular one must have been a store display piece, and featured a real working engine and drifeshaft.

A small but amazing selection of mid-mod furniture and accessories.

Vintage military gear is always popular.

The formica dining table was unique in that the leaf was included. That's pretty rare.

What a great sign. Unfortunately the mercury was long gone.

"I Pity the Fool!"

Vintage Ray-Ban aviators and a can of Old Milwaukee suds? Sounds about right to me.

I've always been a Pac-Man junky, and I had that exact same lunchbox when I was a kid. Not a bad buy at $65 (I didn't get it) considering the thermos was included.

The Jimmy Carter Presidential Campaign coloring books were a warehouse find. Absolutely hilarious.

I'll be kicking myself later for not purchashing that vintage Georgetown pennant. They are impossible to find here in the DC area.

Some pretty decent furniture, but those two matching chairs in the front were going for $650. Rip. Off.


So what the hell did I buy? I actually made out pretty well. See for yourself:

I popped immediately on this vintage plant stand. I've wanted one for awhile, and at only $40 it was way cheaper than what I've been able to find on eBay. The fiberglass is a little scuffed and scratched, but I have a few project ideas in mind.

I saw this desk fan and knew that I wanted it for the office. It was only $18 and needs a little cleaning up, but it works great. I date it back to the 1940s.

Fliegender Bleistift: "The Flying Pencil"

Dornier 17s on Patrol in Poland. Bundesarchiv, Bild. Spieth. Summer 1940.


Chalk this one up to amazing finds. Literally.

“At 1142 hours, 264 Squadron was ordered to take off and patrol Dover, to intercept enemy bombers.”

The report neatly summarizes the encounter, listing six enemy Dornier 17 bombers and one Me-109 fighter destroyed, to three Defiants lost on the British side. The details state that one Do-17 was “…damaged. Broke formation—smoking from both engines.” It is believed that this is the airplane that made a forced landing in an area of the English Channel called Goodwin Sands at low tide, shortly before 2 p.m. that afternoon. Read the original combat report.

A sonar side-scan image of a Dornier 17 that has been on the bottom of the English Channel for 70 years. Courtesy: RAF Museum.

Read the rest of the article on the EAA Website.

Vinyl Trip

I picked up two relatively new albums this past weekend at my favorite local vinyl one-stop-shop. Don't hate. I may be a tweenie bopper but at least I stay Current.

The thing I love about the revitalized record biz is that most companies now offer either a free mp3 album download or a free CD included in the packaging. If you can't beat the heat you can at least save a little coin.

Anyway, both albums are pretty dope and I'll be rocking them until the end of summer.

Carry on...

1977 Honda CB400

American Muscle

You're Always Sure With DeJur!

UPDATE (7/22/2010): I went back this afternoon and the shit was gone. Oh well, at least we learned a little something. Now back to our lives...



A couple of months ago I inherited a whole mess of records from a client. They have been sitting on the floor of my living room collecting dust and taking up negative space. So after sorting, listening, and removing all of the junky ones (the 1970 M.A.S.H. film soundtrack was unbearable), I finally took them down to a local thrift store this afternoon for donation.

Now, it is a well known fact that I am a sucker for the more unusual finds at flea markets and thrift stores, but let me start by saying that today's discovery has me completely baffled:



What you're looking at is a DeJur-Amsco Corp (made in New York) Custom 8mm movie projector. Spotting a $15 price tag and a retractable chord in fantastic shape I deliberated in my head for a solid ten minutes on whether or not I should buy this thing. I eventually walked away because I just HAD to do research on it first (what can I say, I'm a history nerd).

Unfortunately there isn't a lot of info available out on the internets, and what I have found has been contradictory. I've narrowed down the manufacturing date of this model to sometime in the 1960s, and it is either a 750 as seen in the ad above, or is a 1000 as pictured here. It is missing the carrying case, among other things, and to be frank I have absolutely no idea if it even works.

What I have discovered is that in prime working condition these things sell for $195 on eBay; which is around the original retail price. Calculating inflation from that time period to today (1957-2007 = 639.56%), that original 1960s price tag would be equivalent to $1200 today. So what we're saying here is that this projector wasn't cheap. It also means I should give this whole issue a rest.

I feel like I need it in my life, but I'm NOT always sure with DeJur!





I just happened to come across this surfing film on YouTube shot on an 8mm video cam - Galveston, Texas in the early 70s. Pretty cool:

Barbie's Mile High Club

Aloha from Hawaii! Vintage 1972 Barbie United Friend Ship Playset.

A Day At The Airport

Wanna Be A Hipsta? There's An App For That.

It's called Hipstamatic and I purchased it recently off of iTunes. You can recreate all of the magic and fun of a vintage plastic toy camera without the hassle of film loading and development costs. The last time I had four rolls of 120mm film developed for my Dirty Diana it set me back fifty bucks. This app cost a mere $1.99.

You can thank me later.

Modernism Alive and Well in NOVA

Modernism is an absolute passion of mine, but having lived in the Northern Virginia/DC Metro Area most of my adult life I have grown accustomed to the stodgy conservative architecture encompassing the region.

That is why I was stoked to stumble across an article in the Spring 2010 issue of Modernism magazine about the Hollin Hills neighborhood.

Situated a couple miles north of Frank Lloyd Wright's Pope-Leighey House, this 450 home development is anything but bland.

According to the article:

Hollin Hills got its start in the late 1940s when Robert Davenport, who had previously developed an experimental neighborhood in the same area, called Tauxemont, with colleagues from the Department of Agriculture, teamed up with Charles Goodman, one of the few modernist architects practicing in the Washington area. In Tauxemont, Davenport had drawn on his agricultural and New Deal background to build simple rectangular houses made of low-cost materials purchased in bulk and arranged to reflect the topography of the site. After acquiring a tract just north of Tauxemont that most developers thought unbuildable because it was so hilly, Davenport engaged Goodman as the architect. In Davenport, Goodman found a like-minded partner willing to build modern houses instead of the ubiquitous colonials then being constructed by the thousands across northern Virginia. The challenges of the site led Davenport and Goodman to bring modernist landscape architects into the mix. Their collaborative efforts to design, develop and market a subdivision based exclusively on modernist principles was unprecedented in the United States. The quality of their product garnered immediate attention; indeed, Hollin Hills won its first of many design awards in 1951, barely two years after the first homes were completed.

I took a short drive over to the neighborhood this afternoon and was instantly blown away by the modernist sophistication and level of care that has gone into these homes. Many of them were listed for sale, but I'm not sayin' which ones. Apparently I missed the spring homes tour by just two weeks, and instead had to settle for the stalkerish photos below. I hope to visit again soon in a more "official" capacity.
































Large floor-to-ceiling windows, some in the form of doors, were standard on all Hollin Hills houses, enabling indoor/outdoor living and making the interiors of the modest houses appear larger. The interiors were so bright that many residents painted their walls dark colors. © Robert C. Lautman, Collection of the National Building Museum